Demand for Java, .NET grow in Asia

By ADT Staff

06/13/2006

Results from an Evans Data Corp. dev survey released this week revealed that Asian developers are implementing Java EE 5 at a rapid rate. But it isn’t the only code language on the upswing. Results also show the continued strength of .NET apps, sparking a competitive market in the region.

According to Evans’ APAC Development Survey, more than 36 percent of Asian developers are using Java EE 5—a 200 percent increase from just 6 months ago and a pace that doubles Java’s growth rate in North America. And nearly two-thirds of developers in the region are expected to adopt the language next year.

While Java has demonstrated its viability in the Asian market, .NET isn’t going away. The Evans’ survey shows 75 percent of Asian developers continue to use Microsoft .NET apps, of which 13 percent implement it exclusively.

“These results speak to the superior technical strength of both managed code languages,” said John Andrews, president of Evans Data Corp., Santa Cruz, Calif. “It’s a tribute to both communities given that the bar for feature rich and high performance applications continues to rise, and both are meeting the challenge.”

Evans’ research also indicates that 35 percent of Asian developers using Java technology write Web services for use outside a company firewall. Their survey also shows a quarter of developers in the region have encountered 10 or more security breaches and 26 percent of respondents blame the problem on end-user disobedience.

In the words of one “white hat” security tester: “the easiest way to breach corporate security is to wrestle with a big box at the company entrance; people hold the door open for a stranger, even when every employee is supposed to use an electronic badge for access.”